Today’s “managerial” capitalism has grown hopelessly out of touch with the people it should be serving. The Support Economy explores the chasm between people and corporations and reveals a new society of individuals who seek relationships of advocacy and trust that provide support for their complex lives.
Unlocking the wealth of these new markets can unleash the next great wave of wealth creation, but it requires a radically new approach—“distributed” capitalism. The Support Economy is a call to action for every citizen who cares about the future.
Customer Reviews
It is Beginning to Happen:
I purchased the hardback version when it was first available because I had found Ms Zuboff’s other book and her presentations to be enlightening and perceptive regarding the impact of the computer and information technology. That was a few years ago but I have continued to look for markers indicating the concepts in The Support Economy were as perceptive as they seemed. Many of those markers are appearing. Individual pods of services that will be required are now appearing in startup companies and old line service vendors. It will be a while before the necessary institutional compromises will occur that ties the services together but it is happening.
I repeatedly loaned out the hardcopy and recently bought a softback copy to insure I had a reference copy available. If an electronic copy is later made available I will purchase it as well (I find reference information in an electronic version is so much more efficient).
I am smarter than you !:
The core of the book is correct, but much is an attempt to show how clever the writers are and how much research they have collected over the years. Sure a business does need the people who drive their own car to a passenger’s home 150 miles away to deliver a birthday present left on their aircraft, but if you have more than a few of these, you go broke. If things look too good compared to the world around them then they probably they are just too good to be real. Markets are a fine balance bewteen giving paying customers what they will pay for, and having a few layers of very thin gold plate (based on extreme service stories) that make the offer look better than what they are paying for today. Ask anyone who started a business (and gets paid last after the staff and the government) if they believe in the tooth fairy of good times capitalism, and they will tell you if this exists, they are yet to see it.
An Outstanding Diagnosis:
I strongly recommend The Support Economy.
I’ll start with the negatives — it took me about 100 pages to really get into it; like most business books the authors repeat themselves; the future state they outline is sketchy; and they don’t even really attempt to describe how we get from here to there.
The reason I’m recommending it is that Zuboff and Maxmin absolutely nail the diagnosis of what’s wrong with the interaction between producers and consumers today — the way that individuals (at home and at work) are the shock absorbers between what enterprises know how to do and what people today need; the reason that managerial capitalism has to give way to, well, something new that they call “distributed capitalism;” the need to move beyond the relentless optimization of transactions and towards the maximization of value in the context of people’s lives. And, thinking about my own situation and those of many of my peers, it just rings true. My personal trainer (who is also an event planner) is a kind of poster child for this new capitalism.
While “support” is in the title, this isn’t a book about technical support — it’s about a new value proposition of people helping people, not just better-products-cheaper. That being said, it is strongly influencing my thinking about technical support in general and my consulting company’s value proposition in particular.
Stellar!!:
This book has changed the way I think about the world and business. I never thought about the fact that when markets change the way we do business must change. The book calls us ‘ history’s shock absorbers” as we live with the pain and opportunity that arises when one business model is dying and another is being born. The book is packed with insights, facts and theory that open the mind to a new way of doing business. It is ground breaking stuff. We never think about capitalism in our everyday business lives but maybe we should have done . We are part of history and we can make more money and build better corporations if we really understood this. I would recommend this book to everyone. It is a great read and a map to a new future.
A Pedantic Mess of a Good Idea:
These authors are on the right track but they are more interested in impressing readers with their vocabulary than following through with some do-able solutions. I firmly believe that corporations need to catch up to what the customer really wants but this book meanders through a maze of technical and non-related issues which distract from the great theme it is about. I trudged through the whole book waiting for an answer to the problem I could understand but there was absolutely no common sense I could grasp that would lead me to a satisfactory conclusion. Felt like I was back in school again. Ugh!
